Echos in Time
by House of Eros
Summary: Joel has fought his inner demons for twenty years since Sarah's death... Now to be faced with a girl, a man and love... What's a bitter locked human being like himself to do when confronted with the very thing he's tried so hard to keep away? Finding himself has never been so painful... And captivating.


_**Hey guys I just finished Last of Us and I just knew that was FanFic material, for any of my followers I promise to add the epilogue to my Zootopia Fanfic soon.~**_

 _ **RATED M for: Language, suggestive themes, possible triggers, sexual content and depressing material.**_

 _ **VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.**_

 _ **-Eros**_

* * *

Twenty years.. ** _._**

Twenty goddamn years...

How had he survived this long? By learning the law of the jungle so-to-speak, kill or be killed, survival of the fittest... The rules of the food-chain. While Joel was good at it, it didn't necessarily mean he had to like it. While life was considerably easier (depending on who you asked) in the Boston Quarantine zone, he wasn't exactly... Living... He was just a wasted space, drinking and living off ration cards desperately like every other sorry son-of-a-bitch... With the occasional drink. He was thankful though for his partner in crime , Tess... If it weren't for her Joel knew he would have went insane long ago.

However due to recent... Events, the two were rather trigger happy against their _old friend_ Robert...

"You were lucky you didn't get yourself killed..." Joel scolded as they wandered their secret route after Tess revealed herself being assaulted by a couple of thugs.

"They were nobodies... What matters is Robert fucking sent them... It's time to even the score." Tess sneered as the two took a slight leisurely pace in outside the city.

While the outside held many dangers, there was no such thing as complete safety. Whether it be Clickers and Fireflies on the outside... Or the soldiers on the inside... One thing was certain, life would never be the same... Not after-

"Dammit the ladder is gone again." Tess cursed, pulling Joel out of his own mind, for the best really.

"I'll find it, gimme a minute." He said and frowned as he began trudging around the grassy terrain in search of the ladder, wondering where it had been put this time since they weren't the only once who used this mode of getting to the outside world. "Here." He stated, placing the ladder at the open broken building.

Upon climbing the ladder he glanced behind him, offering Tess a helping hand and she would nod in appreciation. While they were partners, to everyone's surprise and Tess' dismay they were never romantically involved... Joel was a complicated man and the word complicated was hard to use in explaining Joel. In the years the two had known each other Joel was never one to open up and express how he was doing.

Robert, however, was not going to give up easy... After another attack, Joel and Tess looked to one another.

"He's ain't gonna make this easy..." Joel commented and Tess scoffed.

"After that asshole tried to kill me, I don't care how hard he makes it." Tess replied.

As they trekked through the abandoned building, Joel paused in his stride, the familiar cloud of infectious spore causing a subtle shiver to descend down his spine.

"Hold up, spores." He said and reached into his bag, pulling out his gas mask and slipped it over his face.

"How the hell did these get here..? It was clear last time..." Tess scoffed as they wandered through the thick mist of deadly spores.

"You never know, keep your eyes peeled." Joel stated as they trudged through the spores. "Through here." He mentioned, pointing briefly to a slightly collapsed doorway that was blocked by a fallen book case.

Joel huffed as he carefully pushed the bookcase out of their way, but was quickly met by crumbling debris. He was lucky nothing hit his head and damaged his mask...

"You okay?" Tess worriedly asked.

"Fine, this whole damn building is coming undone, just be careful." Joel said and crouched, crawling through an open hole, gasping as something took a hold of his ankle, jumping away quickly.

"Shit!" Tess cursed with surprise until it was revealed whatever it was, was still sane.

"Please..." He wheezed, causing a huge sigh of relief from Tess and Joel. "... My mask broke... Don't let me turn into one of those... Things..." He coughed.

"... What do you want to do?" Tess asked.

Joel frowned and checked his cartridge, four bullets... Should he risk the noise only having three bullets left after he pulled the trigger..?

... Yes.

 _BANG._

"... Poor bastard." Tess sighed as the two quickly vacated the scene, unknowing if there was any infected nearby, but hearing no shriek of aggravated runners, they seemed to be in the clear.

The two then walked in silence through the spore infested air, however the familiar groan of a stalker forcing the small team down to the ground.

"Shit." Tess growled as Joel pressed his ear silently against the wall, they were definitely in there, however the scream of a woman soon filled the room, and she would provide enough distraction to keep any blank stares away from them.

One still remained... Joel peaked around the corner, it was in it's dormant state, hunched over, wheezing softly. Joel never liked dealing with stalkers, but he was the man after all. He slowly crept up behind the Stalker, catching it quickly and beginning to aggressively suffocate it until it stopped struggling, he would then glance to Tess who peaked out to make sure Joel was safe. He darted his gaze over to the other two who were steadily feeding on the fresh corpse before nodding to the brunette woman. She quickly followed in suit, quickly scurrying past the feeding Stalkers.

The opening was right there. Joel raised his brows and carefully dropping to the floor, raising the mask off his face, but quickly looking to Tess as she jumped down, a few bricks falling from the foundation, hearing the startled gasps from the Stalkers inside she cursed under her breath and pulled out her gun.

"No! The noise will draw more, we can handle this." Joel said in a hushed fashion, watching as the two instigated stalkers stumbled out of the building.

Tess took her knife to one of them, shoving it through her skull while Joel landed a rough jab in the others face, then another. He was careful to avoid the mouth area, as any bite of any kind was result in infection and death. He was quick to down the stalker before stomping repeatedly on it's face.

"You good, Texas?" Tess asked, stretching her arms some as she used the affectionate nickname, Joel moved his eyes to her before nodding his head.

"I'm good." He replied before they continued their trek across the city.

* * *

However it wasn't met without difficulty from Robert's hired goons, no doubt he was expecting them, three of them to be exact, the obvious aggressor stepping towards the dynamic team of two.

"Ya'll better get back where the fuck you came from." He snapped.

"Our beef isn't with you, we just want Robert..." Tess said relatively calm.

"Look bitch, I will bash your skull if you don't turn around right now." He spat, Tess then looked to Joel with disinterest before speaking.

"Fuck this." She mused before planting a bullet through the thugs heart, roughly pulling Joel into cover from the unexpected turn of events. "Get the angle on them I'll cover you." She instructed, Joel nodded without hesitation and ducked behind a few crated before he, himself, put two bullets in the heads of their enemies.

"Clean, glad to have you... We should'a brought more people." She murmured with a tinge of worry.

"They'd just slow us down." Joel quipped back, reinstating her confidence as she snorted.

"You're right." She chuckled before the two wandered their way into the warehouse, killing five more people in the process.

While Joel was good at killing he didn't exactly fancy it, but Robert fucked up and Joel was happy to kill him and anyone who backed him, and with the fireflies in search of them, their time was very limited... Unlocking the door to the warf, the two noted at least eight people, this would not end well if they weren't careful. Joel and Tess carefully slid through a small hole in the fence, Tess pointing discreetly.

"That's our man." She muttered. "Let's be smart about this." She stated and Joel reached over, taking a brick in his palm before he chucked it as far as he could, hearing the small smash, he could hear audible curses from the hired guns.

The team then took this advantage to sneak through some old storage tanks, only having to drop two bodies before they snuck into the small office, Tess would then lock both locks on the door before they walked in, met with gunshots they hid in the doorway where Robert cowered.

"We just wanna talk Robert!" Tess stated.

"We got nothing to talk about!" Robert shouted.

"Put down the gun." Joel said seriously, but hearing the familiar click of an empty pistol, Robert cursed and threw the now useless weapon at the two before sprinting out the door.

"Quick before he gets away!" Tess yelled as she and Joel took off after him.

The chase ended almost as fast as it began as Robert realized he was trapped when the dynamic duo caught up with him.

"... Hello Robert." Tess greeted, smirking having caught the man who had tried making sure she was dead.

"... Tess... Joel... No hard feelings right?" Robert squirmed as he paced, watching Tess pick up a pipe. "Come on now... We don't have to make this messy."

"The guns Robert..." Joel said with a frown, but watching Robert attempt a pitiful escape, Tess was quick to snatch his knee cap with the pipe, Robert yelped as he went down.

"Where are our fucking guns?" Tess snarled.

"Look I-I... I sold them." Robert stuttered, Tess looking to Joel and back to Robert with pure disbelief.

"Excuse me?"

"I owed someone!" He panted.

"Well you owe us..." Tess spat. "... I think you bet on the wrong horse."

"I can get them all back and then some!" Robert said in a panicked fashion.

"Where are they?" Tess asked, but met with hesitation, Joel spent no time in smashing his boot into Robert's face. " _Where are they?_ " Tess growled.

"Please just give me another week!" He squealed.

"You know, I might have considered that if you didn't try to fucking kill me." Tess scoffed, watching as Joel knelt next to the bleeding man.

"Stop! Stop!" Robert gasped as Joel took a hold of his wrist.

"Who has them?" Tess questioned.

"I-... I can't." He muttered, Joel then shifted his gaze to Tess before quickly pulling back, breaking Robert's arm.

"Fuck!" He cried.

"I can do this all day." Joel mused.

"Stop! They're... They're with the Fireflies... I owed the Fireflies!" Robert said desperately trying to get the torture to stop, Joel frowned prominently and stood, looking to Tess seriously. "L-Look they're basically wiped out! We just gotta go in there off the last of them and you got your guns? What do ya say?" He asked.

"... That's a fucking stupid idea." Tess grumbled before popping two caps in Robert's head.

"What do we do now? Do you really think the Fireflies will just hand over our guns?" Joel sighed.

"Look let's just... Explain to them." Tess muttered, obviously out of ideas too.

"... Alright then let's go find a Firefly." Joel stated before turning around.

"You don't have to look far." A familiar deep feminine voice called as a dark skinned woman appeared from the shadows.

"Would ya look at that... Queen Firefly." Joel muttered with a tad of distaste.

"Marlene, what are you doing here?" Tess asked.

"Looking for Robert." She replied tiredly, watching as Tess smirked with pride and stepped aside to reveal the dead body, Marlene would then shake her head with frustrated smile.

"I needed him alive." She sighed.

"Well, he sold something that wasn't his to sell... And we want'em back..." Tess said matter-of-factly.

"It doesn't work like that Tess." Marlene stated with the shake of her head.

"The hell it doesn't." Tess hissed.

"I paid for those guns... If you want them back you're gonna have to earn them..." Marlene said confidently and Tess would roll her eyes in an exasperated fashion.

"How many cards we talkin'?" She asked and Marlene scoffed.

"I don't give a damn about ration cards..."

"Then what _do_ you want?" Joel asked.

"... I need something smuggled out of the city... You do that? You'll get your guns and then some." Marlene said.

"How do we know you got'em? What we've been hearin' is that the military's been wiping you guys out..." Joel said in a passive aggressive fashion.

"Why do you think I'm turning to you? I'm out of options." She said seriously.

"I wanna see them..." Tess said narrowing her eyes.

"I'll take you to them..." Marlene sighed, but the doting sound of radios and patrolling soldiers forced Marlene to begin backing up. "What's it gonna be?" She asked.

"I wanna see those guns." Tess said as she and Joel began following quickly after Marlene.

Avoiding multiple patrols and felling multiple bodies, Marlene stumbled into a sort-of safe area. She and Tess pushed over a locker to deter any prying soldiers.

"Where are you taking us Marlene?" Tess asked in suspicion.

"It's not far..." Marlene panted.

"How are you doin'?" Tess then asked, noting the wound on her abdomen.

"I'm running on fumes but I'll live." Marlene said as the ventured into another office area.

Marlene almost fell in the door, Joel bent over to pick her up but they were met with a very trigger happy girl who wasn't afraid of confrontation.

"Get the fuck away from her!" She yelled and Tess would catch her arm that wielded a knife.

"Let go of her..." Marlene said and Tess would glare down the kid before releasing her.

"Don't worry... I brought help." Marlene sighed and held herself up.

"Oh shit, what happened?" The girl asked worriedly and approached the other female.

"Don't worry, this is fixable." Marlene said consoling the younger the two.

"Wait... We're smuggling her?" Joel asked, automatically uncomfortable.

"You just gotta take her to the Capital Building, a group of Fireflies will meet you there..." Marlene instructed.

"That's not exactly close." Tess replied.

"You're capable." Marlene growled, furrowing her brows.

"Where are the guns?" Tess then asked, looking around.

"At my camp..." Marlene muttered and Tess rolled her eyes.

"We're not smuggling shit until I see the guns." Tess said, folding her arms.

"Look, I'll take you there, show you the guns and get patched up... But I won't bring her into that part of town..." Marlene said and would look to Joel as the girl spoke.

"You're not coming with me?" She asked.

"No Ellie..." Marlene replied with a frown.

"But-"

"Ellie... We won't get another shot at this... Go with Joel while I take Tess to-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, no way." Joel said just as Ellie replied with: "No way I'm not going with him!"

"She's just cargo Joel..." Tess encouraged while Marleen shook her head.

"... We have to do this now Ellie... You can trust him."

"How?" Ellie asked, narrowing her eyes at Joel who did the same back at her.

"I was a friend of his brothers... Said if I was ever in a jam I could rely on him..." Marlene said with confidence.

"Was the before or after he joined your little militia and disappeared?" Joel asked, resentment oozing in his tone.

"He left _me_ too Joel..." Marlene said frowning before Joel sighed and glanced to Tess.

"... Don't take too long... And you," he said looking to Ellie. "... Stay close and do what I say..." He said and motioned her to follow while Tess and Marlene readied to leave.

"Take her to the north tunnel... One of my agents will be there to help you." Marlene said as the two women walked a different path.

* * *

The walk was filled with awkward small talk while Joel tried to understand what was so important about this snotty teen.

"What're you like twelve?" He asked.

"Look I'm not allowed to tell you why you're smuggling me... And not that this has anything to do with anything, but I'm fourteen." She grumbled.

"Fourteen..." Joel scoffed with some amusement as he climbed up the ladder to a fire escape.

As the two walked down the hall towards the designated apartment, he readied his gun, should there be an unfriendly hunter or something else waiting for them. However as Joel slowly began opening the door, the unexpected barking of a dog made him nearly jump out of his skin as he saw the small snout peaking through the door.

"Ivan." A male voice called and the dog would calm and return to it's idle state as Joel finished opening the door, met with a hunting rifle pointed at his face.

"Whoa, whoa... Friendly... I have a kid." Joel said, his eyes darting to the medium sized blue coated dog as it growled at his threatening stance, the charcoal haired man frowned but as Ellie came into view he almost immediately dropped his gun.

"Ellie?" He asked and the girl would gasp.

"Echo!" She said and crashed into the man's chest and then sunk to her knees, hugging the dog."You brought Ivan too?" She asked.

"O'course... I don't go anywhere without him." This 'Echo' replied as he returned his gaze to Joel. "Well... You aren't Marlene but you have Ellie so I suppose I won't shoot you... But if you ever point your gun at my dog I promise I won't hesitate to do so." He said with an obvious fake smile and Joel, while putting his gun down, met the strangers gaze with just as much intensity.

"Lucky for you, I don't shoot dogs... Only animals." Joel quipped back, earning a challenging smirk from the other man who was, as it looked, around ten years younger then himself, but just as able.

This stranger was, indeed, intimidating. Long pitch black hair tired up in a bun, tanned skin, a scar over his left eyelid, piercing hazel eyes as he held a hunting rifle in one hand, a crossbow on his back and a revolver at his belt. Ellie, thankfully was quick to diffuse the rising tension.

"Okay, okay.. Enough with the pissing contest... He's good." She said to Echo, who seemed to pout but nod hesitantly.

"... Fine... Name?" He asked.

"Joel... I assume you're the agent Marleen spoke of?" Joel asked, shutting the door behind him and the dog wagged it's stubby tail at Ellie.

"I am... Agent Echo..." He replied and seeing the obvious confusion on Joels face he was quick to explain. "There are five of us... Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta and last but definitely not least, Echo... Me..." He said motioning to himself.

"Where are the other four?" Joel asked, watching as Echo frowned.

"... Well... Military is making sure we dissolve... So... My guess is that their dead... I haven't heard anything from Alpha in days... Beta, Charlie and Delta in weeks." He said shrugging and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry to hear that." Joel stated.

"I'm sure they're alive... Marleen didn't choose you guys thinking you'd be like everyone else." Ellie said, and while Echo didn't show it, it really did cheer him up.

"We'll see." Echo chuckled as Joel wandered to the couch, plopping down tiredly.

"What're you doing?" Ellie questioned.

"Passing time..." Joel said as he shut his eyes.

"What am I supposed to do?" Ellie grunted.

"Come on Ellie... We can play some cards." Echo chortled.

"You brought them?" Ellie asked, excitement dancing in her tone.

"O'course... I knew I'd be seeing you..." Echo said and walked into the other room with Ellie, the Australian cattle dog following in suit.

Joel followed the three with his eyes as they walked out, what had he gotten himself into? Was this really worth a couple of guns that Robert took? They killed him so their revenge was settled... Looks like his past was definitely catching up with him... No matter... Sleep tugged on his mind for now...

* * *

 _ **There it is! The first Chapter of my latest FanFiction! I just finished the game so I figured let's crack something out while the muse is high! Thank you to all who read and support this story, expect regular updates!**_

 _ **-Eros**_


End file.
